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It's been a while since I posted a trip report and thought this great centennial deserved one. There are only a handful of trip reports, so I thought I would be very simple on the description, mainly giving mileage and elevation and a few tips.
Route followed: Weminuche Creek trail-Skyline Trail-Rincón de la Vaca Trail.
Total distance: 22 miles (should be around 20 miles, my gpx tracks showed 22, see below).
Day 1: Backpack to Weminuche Pass and camp
Trail: Weminuche Creek Trail
Distance: 5.2 miles.
Elevation gain: 1,400
Time: 3 hours
Elevation at camp: 10,700
Park at the Thirty mile (yes, that's 30 miles from Creede!) campground at the special parking lot for backpackers
Rio Grande Reservoir from the trail
The first 1.3 miles of the hike is quite flat with a few up and downs, the elevation gain is just a couple hundred feet.
First creek crossing, from here on is steep uphill for about 1 more mile.
Then the trail flattens a bit and passes through a pretty meadow of aspens
The views of the Weminuche creek valley are spectacular
The last 2 miles and a half to Weminuche pass are very pleasant and easy. After the second creek crossing (some mention it as third crossing, but it is really the second crossing of the Weminuche Creek) we camped on a nice meadow. The skyline trail is just a few feet from the creek crossing, it is a faint trail so it is hard to see it at first.
Day 2: Rio Grande Pyramid and The Window
Trail: Skyline and return via Rincón La vaca Trail
Distance from camp and return to camp: 11.6 (with some detouring as explained below)
Elevation gain: 3,400
Time: 9 hours with stops and lunch break at The Window.
We were on the trail by 5.15 am knowing the storms would come at some point. First sunlight on the dead trees on the Skyline trail
The Skyline trail starts steep for about 2 miles or so.
Somehow, at around 11,800 feet we lost the trail due to tree fall. The trail DOES NOT go down here, we ended up following an elk trail and then had to regain it on a steep hill. We probably lost 20-30 minutes trying to find it again. Recommendation: stay up, the trail does not descend here.
Around 12,000 feet we got the first view of RG Pyramid and the Window. Still a way to go...
A close up of Pyramid. We were surprised there was so little snow...
On the trail again
This shows a perspective with the peak on sight.
The trail comes and goes through a patch of willows. Then, at around 12,400 the trail meets with another one, not sure which one this one is, but we followed it up to the base of the RG Pyramid.
From here on there is no trail but the peak is on sight and the obvious route is to follow the East ridge. This picture is looking back at point 13,261 and a few others.
A mess of boulders is to be conquered!
The last part is steep and slow, till we got at the summit, what a view! Storms are there somewhere in Chicago Basin and the Grenadier Range. Time to get down before they get us!
Now, on the descent we had read some reports where they describe a gulley that leads you to the saddle between RG and the Window. Somehow all the gulleys we tried were too steep and loose to descend safely, so we ended up doing a detour towards the East side of the peak and then traversing towards the Window. Do not follow the gpx tracks that I have recorded, all of those gulleys lead to cliffs!
So, after safely descending on our chosen route we were on route to the Big Window!
Are those the chunks from the Window? By the way the rock there looks like the Crestone conglomerate, pretty cool. It is a big window.
On the descend we looked for the Rincón de la Vaca trail. Mountain Mike resting with the window on the background, yes it will be a long trip back to camp... But it hasn't rained on us yet!
Another view of RG Pyramid and The Window. Clouds were coming but we seemed to have missed the weather as sun always shined on us, how lucky!
On the Rincón de la Vaca Trail, back to camp, about 4 more miles.
Day 3: return to car at Thirty mile campground. Same route as Day 1. This time we hiked out in 2 hours and 15 minutes. Helps to have eaten all the food and drunk the wine
My GPS Tracks on Google Maps (made from a .GPX file upload):
Some of them are possible though not recommended. I got down one of them a few years back. Probably one of the worst descents I’ve ever done. I was really glad I was the only one in there. The farthest gully to the west is supposedly the ’best’ if there is such a thing.
Beautiful area. Nice seeing another trip report from there!
Really nice TR, nice descriptions. We did it last year as a day hike, only in the dark we missed the not–particularly–obvious turn–off to RGP and instead approached via the Rincón de la Vaca Trail (d’oh!) and past the Window then tried to course correct through a slew of willows. Suffice to say, we set no speed records! This is a much more sensible approach! There are many benefits to packing in.
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